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The flow behaviors and microstructural evolutions during multi-stage hot deformation are essential aspects in the processing of high performance titanium alloys. In the present work, both isothermal multi-stage deformation (IMD) and non-isothermal multi-stage deformation (NMD) over α + β and single β phase regions were employed to study the constitutive behaviors and microstructural evolutions of a near- α Ti-5Al-2.5Sn alloy. The results showed that the flow stress, restoration fraction in α + β phase region of NMD were lower than that of IMD, because that the predominant lamellar microstructures formed during NMD increased α/β boundaries and thereby promoted grain boundaries gliding. In β phase region, the flow behaviors showed slight differences with temperature and deformation passes during both IMD and NMD processes. Clear transitions were observed from the mean flow stress between different phase regions during NMD. In addition, an obvious α + β → β dynamic phase transformation occurred during deformation at 990 °C, which was identified to be a displacive nucleation and diffusion-controlled growth process. In addition, numerous FCC-Ti precipitations were observed during IMD at 960 °C and strain rate of 1 s−1 with the orientation relationship of (0 0 0 1) HCP matrix //{1 1 1} FCC. [Display omitted] • Isothermal and non-isothermal multi-stage deformation across different phase regions were performed on a Ti-Al-Sn alloy. • The flow stress during isothermal multi-stage deformation in dual phase region was higher than that of non-isothermal ones. • Clear transitions were observed from the mean flow stress between different phase regions during non-isothermal deformation. • An obvious α→β dynamic phase transformation occurred during isothermal multi-stage deformation at 990 °C. • Numerous FCC-Ti precipitates were observed during isothermal multi-stage deformation at 960 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Precipitation behaviors of Al-Cu-Mg-Zr alloy were highly dependent on pre-precipitation microstructures and thermal history. • A temperature–time-microstructure-properties map was established to unravel precipitation characteristics and their strengthening functions. • The in situ electrical resistivity was used as the main input data to develop an improved model based on the classical Kampmann and Wagner type numerical model. • The maximum hardness for heat-treated alloys is mainly attributed to the co-existence of Guinier-Preston-Bagaryatsky (GPB) zones and S phase. The complex precipitation evolutions of Al-Cu-Mg alloys during both non-isothermal and isothermal thermal processes have been found to work on their mechanical properties and electrical resistivity. Modeling of the precipitation kinetics, electrical resistivity and strength evolution is therefore essential for optimizing heat treatment and processing of these alloys. In this work, in situ electrical resistivity monitoring during both non-isothermal and isothermal thermal processes and microstructural characterizations were conducted on an Al-Cu-Mg-Zr alloy with different pre-precipitation microstructures to provide fundamental insights of precipitation behaviors. The results showed that precipitation behaviors of Al-Cu-Mg-Zr alloy, such as the dominant strengthening phase, were highly dependent on pre-precipitation microstructures and thermal history. A time–temperature-microstructure-properties map was established to unravel precipitation characteristics and their strengthening functions. The maximum hardness was indicated to be attributed to the combined presence of Guinier–Preston–Bagaryatsky (GPB) zones and fine S (Al 2 CuMg) phase. Further, in situ electrical resistivity was used as the main input data to develop an improved model based on the classical Kampmann and Wagner type numerical model (KWN model). This integrated model could not only reveal precipitation kinetics but also well predict hardness evolutions of the studied alloy during non-isothermal and isothermal processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water-lubricated bearing in ship propulsion system is easily impacted by sea wave shock, which is a great threat to the smooth start-up of the bearing system. Therefore, in the present research, the Euler equations, average Reynolds equation, and sea wave shock function are combined together to build the start-up model of water-lubricated bearing. The influences of amplitude, direction, and entry time of sea wave shock on the start-up performance of bearing are studied. The result shows that the shaft has a strong instantaneous vibration under the influence of friction force at the initial start-up stage, and the shock load with appropriate direction and amplitude can suppress or even eliminate this vibration phenomenon. The earlier the shock enters the start-up process, the more serious asperity contact gets, and the worse the system's stability becomes. The increase of the shock load amplitude and the advance of the shock load entry time can help the shaft rapidly lift off. This study can provide a reference for the smooth start-up of ship propulsion system in a sea wave environment. • External force can be actively applied to suppress shaft vibration during start-up. • The later the shock load enters, the more conducive it is to smooth start-up. • With the increase of shock load amplitude, shaft's lift-off time shortens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An internal hydrogenation was proposed to alter the microstructures of alloy surface. • Gaseous hydrogen charging of Mg–Gd–Y–Zn–Zr alloy was carried out at 482 °C. • The novel strip-shaped REH x aggregates replaced LPSO phases in hydrogenated layers. • The surface hydrogenated layer exhibits improved corrosion resistance. A surface hydrogen treatment is proposed to improve the corrosion resistance of a long-period stacking ordered (LPSO) phase-enhanced Mg–Gd–Y–Zn–Zr alloy. After hydrogen treatment, the block-like LPSO phases are replaced by novel strip-shaped Gd 0.5 Y 0.5 H 1.96 aggregates in the surface hydrogenated layer with 260 ± 42 μm thickness. The results of immersion tests in a 3.5 % NaCl solution show that hydrogen treatment improves the corrosion resistance of the alloy. As the LPSO phase decomposes, the Zn enriched in the LPSO phase dissolves into a magnesium matrix, which increases the Volta potential of the surface hydrogenated layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid aluminum matrix composites are appealing in the aviation, aerospace and automotive industries and have the potential to substitute single reinforced composites due to their enhanced comprehensive properties. In the present work, 6061 Al matrix composite hybrids reinforced with SiC and stainless steel particles were prepared to improve the strength and ductility by the powder metallurgy method. The mechanical properties, fracture behaviors and deformation mechanisms under various aging conditions were investigated by uniaxial tensile tests and microstructural characterizations. The results showed that the composite hybrid reinforced with SiC and stainless steel particles could effectively enhance the ductility without losing strength compared to the composite reinforced with single SiC particles. Under various artificial aging treatments, the mechanical properties of the composites changed, but the stainless steel particles always played a positive role in the composites and did not change the precipitation sequence of the aluminum matrix. The improvement in ductility was mainly attributed to the deformable nature of the reinforcement particles. The load was successfully transferred to the stainless steel particles and resulted in a uniform strain distribution of the hybrid reinforced composites. Conversely, the interfacial fracture caused by high interfacial dislocation pileup during deformation limited the plasticity of aluminum matrix composites reinforced with single SiC particles. • 6061Al composites hybrid reinforced with SiC and stainless steel particles were synthetized by powder metallurgy. • The addition of stainless steel could effectively enhance the ductility of composite without losing the strength. • SiC and stainless steel particles additions had little effect on the aging hardening behavior of Al matrix. • The strong bonding between Al matrix and stainless steel particles was beneficial to the ductility. • Uniform strain distribution were also characterized during deformation in 6061 hybrid Al matrix composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The microstructural evolutions and resulted mechanical responses during isothermal holding of multipass hot deformation are essential aspects in the processing of high performance titanium alloys. In this work, isothermal holding testing was performed on a Ti-5Al-3V alloy after hot compression at temperatures of 900 °C, 930 °C and 960 °C, respectively. Stress relaxation, dilatometer measurements, and microstructure examinations (i.e. scanning electron microscope, electron backscatter diffraction and transmission electron microscope) were employed to investigate the phase transformation behaviors. The results showed a flow stress hardening phenomenon during the interrupted isothermal holding in two phase region. The post-dynamic transformation from α to β phase took place first during the early stage of isothermal holding after hot deformation. With longer isothermal holding time, the reverse transformation of meta-stable β phase to α phase was then observed. Under TEM, the reverse transformed α phases were isolated from quenched α ' phases. The in-depth mechanisms of post-dynamic α to β phase transformation and reverse transformation were discussed as well. Unlabelled Image • Flow stress hardening is found during double-stage deformation in two phase region. • A post-dynamic transformation of α to β phase occurred during interrupted holding. • The reverse transformation of β phase to α phase occurred with further holding. • The reverse transformed α phases were distinguished from α ' phases by TEM. • The post-dynamic transformation should be driven by stored energy and stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SiC p /Al-Fe-V-Si composites exhibit complex deformation behaviors at both room and high temperatures because of the presence of SiC reinforcement particles and numerous fine dispersed Al 12 (Fe, V) 3 Si heat-resistant phases. In this work, an artificial neural network (ANN) constitutive model was established to study the deformation behavior of SiC p /Al-7.75Fe-1.04V-1.95Si composites over a wide temperature range based on uniaxial compression. Then, microstructural observation, finite element analysis, and processing maps were utilized to investigate the plastic workability. The results showed that the ANN model fit the experimental stress-strain curves with high accuracy, achieving an R 2 value of 0.999. The ANN model was embedded into finite element software to study plastic deformation behaviors, which indicated that this model could accurately compute the plastic and mechanical response during the compressing process. Finally, a thermomechanical processing diagram was developed, revealing that the optimal processing parameters of the SiC p /Al-7.75Fe-1.04V-1.95Si composites were a deformation temperature of 450-500 °C and a deformation rate of 0.1-0.2 s - 1 .

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic effect of modified clear Twin Block (CTB) aligner and traditional twin block (TB) appliance from skeletal, dentoalveolar and soft tissue changes in adolescents with skeletal class II malocclusion., Methods: A total of 80 adolescents, included in this study from two medical centres, were distributed into CTB group, TB group and control group based on the treatment they received. Lateral cephalograms at pre-treatment (T1) and post-treatment (T2) were measured by modified Pancherz's cephalometric analysis, and dentoskeletal and soft tissue changes were analysed by independent-sample t-test, paired-sample t-test, ANOVA test and Scheffe's Post Hoc test., Results: Seventy-five adolescents completed the study, including 32 in the CTB group, 32 in the TB group and 11 in the control group. Both CTB and TB treatment showed significant differences in most dentoskeletal and soft tissue measurements. Compared with the control group, improvements were observed in class II molar relationship through significant different in S Vert/Ms-S Vert/Mi in the CTB group (P < .01) and the TB group (P < .001), as well as deep overjet through significant different in S Vert/Is-S Vert/Ii in the CTB group (P < .001) and the TB group (P < .001). Besides, the CTB group also showed less protrusion of lower incisors and resulted in a more significant improvement in profile with fewer adverse effects on speaking, eating and social activities., Conclusions: For adolescents with skeletal class II malocclusion, CTB appliance was as effective as TB on improving dentoskeletal and soft tissue measurements, featuring more reliable teeth control and patient acceptance., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons A/S.)

Liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) is a widely utilized technique for in vivo pharmaceutical analysis. Ionization interference within electrospray ion source, occurring between drugs and metabolites, can lead to signal variations, potentially compromising quantitative accuracy. Currently, method validation often overlooks this type of signal interference, which may result in systematic errors in quantitative results without matrix-matched calibration. In this study, we conducted an investigation using ten different groups of drugs and their corresponding metabolites across three LC-ESI-MS systems to assess the prevalence of signal interference. Such interferences can potentially cause or enhance nonlinearity in the calibration curves of drugs and metabolites, thereby altering the relationship between analyte response and concentration for quantification. Finally, we established an evaluation scheme through a step-by-step dilution assay and employed three resolution methods: chromatographic separation, dilution, and stable labeled isotope internal standards correction. The above strategies were integrated into the method establishment process to improve quantitative accuracy., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Objectives: This study was designed to determine the optimal anterior-posterior (AP) position of upper incisors through Anterior Nasal Spine (ANS) point., Materials and Methods: Lateral cephalometric radiographic images of 690 patients were collected and divided into a derivation group and a validation group, and the former were subdivided into a proper AP position (PAP) group and an improper AP position (iPAP) group. The distance from facia-axis (FA) point of upper incisors to the line perpendicular to Frankfort horizontal (FH) plane through ANS (FA-ANS) was measured, and the relationship between FA-ANS and several cephalometric indices were studied through Pearson correlation analysis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for different clinical indices were analyzed to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of optimal AP position of upper incisors., Results: The average value of FA-ANS in PAP group was 0.57±1.99, which was significantly different from FA-ANS in iPAP group. Cephalometric indices such as U1-NA, U1-SN, AB-NPo, UL-TVL, Wits, and ANB were found to be correlated with FA-ANS. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves represented a greater diagnostic efficiency of FA-ANS compared with other clinical indices., Conclusions: ANS point, as a stable skeletal landmark, could be used to access an optimal AP position of upper incisors, providing aids to clinical diagnosis and treatment goal determination for clinical practice., Clinical Relevance: A new index FA-ANS, together with other traditional indices, could help determine the optimal position of upper incisors and provide a personalized therapeutic plan., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Lateral cephalometric radiograph (LCR) is crucial to diagnosis and treatment planning of maxillofacial diseases, but inappropriate head position, which reduces the accuracy of cephalometric measurements, can be challenging to detect for clinicians. This non-interventional retrospective study aims to develop two deep learning (DL) systems to efficiently, accurately, and instantly detect the head position on LCRs., Methods: LCRs from 13 centers were reviewed and a total of 3000 radiographs were collected and divided into 2400 cases (80.0 %) in the training set and 600 cases (20.0 %) in the validation set. Another 300 cases were selected independently as the test set. All the images were evaluated and landmarked by two board-certified orthodontists as references. The head position of the LCR was classified by the angle between the Frankfort Horizontal (FH) plane and the true horizontal (HOR) plane, and a value within - 3°- 3° was considered normal. The YOLOv3 model based on the traditional fixed-point method and the modified ResNet50 model featuring a non-linear mapping residual network were constructed and evaluated. Heatmap was generated to visualize the performances., Results: The modified ResNet50 model showed a superior classification accuracy of 96.0 %, higher than 93.5 % of the YOLOv3 model. The sensitivity&recall and specificity of the modified ResNet50 model were 0.959, 0.969, and those of the YOLOv3 model were 0.846, 0.916. The area under the curve (AUC) values of the modified ResNet50 and the YOLOv3 model were 0.985 ± 0.04 and 0.942 ± 0.042, respectively. Saliency maps demonstrated that the modified ResNet50 model considered the alignment of cervical vertebras, not just the periorbital and perinasal areas, as the YOLOv3 model did., Conclusions: The modified ResNet50 model outperformed the YOLOv3 model in classifying head position on LCRs and showed promising potential in facilitating making accurate diagnoses and optimal treatment plans., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

SiC particle (SiCp) size has been found to significantly influence the hot workability of particle-reinforced aluminum matrix composites (AMC). In this work, therefore, three types of SiCp/6013 composites with different SiCp sizes (0.7, 5 and 15 μm) were prepared and then subjected to isothermal hot compression tests. In addition, constitutive analysis, processing maps and microstructural characterizations were used to reveal the influence of SiCp size on the hot workability of SiCp/6013 composite. The results showed that the values of hot deformation activation energy Q increased with decreasing SiCp size. Specifically, at lower temperatures (e.g., 350 and 400 °C), the highest peak stress was shown in the AMC with SiCp size of 0.7 μm (AMC-0.7), while in the AMC with SiCp size of 5 μm (AMC-5) at higher temperatures (e.g., 450 and 500 °C). This is because a finer SiCp size would lead to stronger dislocation pinning and grain refinement strengthening effects, and such effects would be weakened at higher temperatures. Further, dynamic softening mechanisms were found to transform from dynamic recovery to dynamic recrystallization with increasing SiCp size, and the dynamic recrystallization occurred more easily at higher temperatures and lower strain rates. Consequently, the instability zones of the composites are all mainly located in the deformation region with lower temperature and higher strain rate, and smaller SiCp results in larger instability zones.

Background: Sexual dimorphism is obvious not only in the overall architecture of human body, but also in intraoral details. Many studies have found a correlation between gender and morphometric features of teeth, such as mesio-distal diameter, buccal-lingual diameter and height. However, it's still difficult to detect gender through the observation of intraoral photographs, with accuracy around 50%. The purpose of this study was to explore the possibility of automatically telling gender from intraoral photographs by deep neural network, and to provide a novel angle for individual oral treatment., Methods: A deep learning model based on R-net was proposed, using the largest dataset (10,000 intraoral images) to support the automatic detection of gender. In order to reverse analyze the classification basis of neural network, Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) was used in the second step, exploring anatomical factors associated with gender recognizability. The simulated modification of images based on features suggested was then conducted to verify the importance of characteristics between two genders. Precision (specificity), recall (sensitivity) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate the performance of our network. Chi-square test was used to evaluate intergroup difference. A value of p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant., Results: The deep learning model showed a strong ability to learn features from intraoral images compared with human experts, with an accuracy of 86.5% and 82.5% in uncropped image data group and cropped image data group respectively. Compared with hard tissue exposed in the mouth, gender difference in areas covered by soft tissue was easier to identify, and more significant in mandibular region than in maxillary region. For photographs with simulated removal of lips and basal bone along with overlapping gingiva, mandibular anterior teeth had similar importance for sex determination as maxillary anterior teeth., Conclusions: Deep learning method could detect gender from intraoral photographs with high efficiency and accuracy. With assistance of Grad-CAM, the classification basis of neural network was deciphered, which provided a more precise entry point for individualization of prosthodontic, periodontal and orthodontic treatments., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: The mechanisms and effects of the interplay between the nerves and skeleton remain a popular research topic. This study aimed to analyze and evaluate publications on nerve-bone interactions using bibliometrics and to identify the state of the art of current research, hotspots, and future directions., Methods: This study included 1989 articles and reviews from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) published from January 1, 1991, to June 22, 2022. The Bibliometrix package of R 4.2.0 (The R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria) was used to analyze basic information about the publications, including the annual number of publications, institution analysis, author influence analysis, journal analysis, and the national cooperation network. We also used CiteSpace 5.8.R3 for bibliometric analysis, including co-occurrence, co-citation, and cluster analysis., Results: We discovered a significant increase in the number of articles on nerve-bone interactions published over the last 10 years. The most active country and institution were the United States and the University of Minnesota, respectively. In terms of journals and cocited journals, Bone was ranked highest with respect to the number of publications, while Journal of Bone and Mineral Research was ranked highest among cited journals. Wang Lei was the author with the most publications, and Bjurholm A was the most cited author. The analysis of references and keywords revealed that the impact of nerve- and neuromodulation-related factors on stem cell differentiation was a persistently hot topic. Osteoarthritis, neuropeptide Y, and osteoclastogenic process are likely to be the next era of research hotspots. The neurovascular crosstalk within bone has received great attention, especially in skeletal diseases, which may provide potential targets for future treatments., Conclusions: We used a bibliometric method to provide an efficient, objective, and comprehensive assessment of existing research about the interplay between the skeletal and nervous systems and to accurately identify hotspots and research frontiers, providing valuable information for future research., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://atm.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/atm-22-3323/coif). All authors report that this work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31971240 and 31670951) and the Clinical Research Project of West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University (No. LCYJ2019-22). The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare., (2023 Annals of Translational Medicine. All rights reserved.)

Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has been widely used in the quantitative analysis of drugs. The ubiquitous concomitant drug scenario in the clinic has spawned a large number of co-analyses based on this technique. However, signal suppression caused by concomitant drugs during electrospray ionization may affect the quantification accuracy of analytes, which has not received enough attention. In this study, metformin (MET) and glyburide (GLY) were co-eluted by the conventional optimization of chromatographic conditions to illustrate the effect of signal suppression caused by the combined drugs on the quantitative analysis. The response of MET was not affected by GLY over the investigated concentration range. However, the GLY signal could be suppressed by about 30% in the presence of MET, affecting its pharmacokinetic analysis in simulated samples. As an attempt to solve the suppression of GLY by co-eluting MET, dilution can alleviate the suppression. However, this method still has limitations due to the sacrifice of sensitivity. The stable isotope-labeled internal standard could play a role in correction and improve the quantitative accuracy of GLY, which was further confirmed in the pharmacokinetic study of simulated samples. This study provided an example model to illustrate the possible effect of clinical drug combination on LC-MS/MS drug quantitative analysis and investigated the effective methods to solve this problem., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Objectives: Cephalometric analysis is essential for diagnosis, treatment planning and outcome assessment of orthodontics and orthognathic surgery. Utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to achieve automated landmark localization has proved feasible and convenient. However, current systems remain insufficient for clinical application, as patients exhibit various malocclusions in cephalograms produced by different manufacturers while limited cephalograms were applied to train AI in these systems., Methods: A robust and clinically applicable AI system was proposed for automatic cephalometric analysis. First, 9870 cephalograms taken by different radiography machines with various malocclusions of patients were collected from 20 medical institutions. Then 30 landmarks of all these cephalogram samples were manually annotated to train an AI system, composed of a two-stage convolutional neural network and a software-as-a-service system. Further, more than 100 orthodontists participated to refine the AI-output landmark localizations and retrain this system., Results: The average landmark prediction error of this system was as low as 0.94 ± 0.74 mm and the system achieved an average classification accuracy of 89.33%., Conclusions: An automatic cephalometric analysis system based on convolutional neural network was proposed, which can realize automatic landmark location and cephalometric measurements classification. This system showed promise in improving diagnostic efficiency in clinical circumstances.

Background: The development of the mandible largely determines the sagittal and vertical lateral appearance. The gonial angle (Articulare-Gonion-Menton, Ar-Go'-Me), as a composite indicator, represents the growth direction of the mandible. We proposed a method based on the Frankfort horizontal (FH) plane and its vertical plane (VFH) to divide the gonial angle into sagittal and vertical components (Articulare-Gonion-VFH / Menton-Gonion-FH, Ar-Go'-VFH / Me-Go'-FH) and to compare the accuracy of diagnosing the development of the mandible and maxillofacial structures with other methods., Methods: Lateral cephalometric films from 736 volunteers aged 6-30 years were collected and analyzed for cephalometric measurements. Four groups of segmentation-based angle, including the FH-based segmentation (Ar-Go'-VFH / Me-Go'-FH), the SN-based segmentation (Articulare-Gonion- Sellion-Nasion plane' vertical plane/ Menton-Gonion- Sellion-Nasion plane, Ar-Go'-VSN / Me-Go'-SN), the Go'-S based segmentation(Articulare-Gonion-Sellion / Menton-Gonion-Sellion, Ar-Go'-S / Me-Go'-S), and the Go'-N based segmentation (Articulare-Gonion-Nasion / Menton-Gonion-Nasion, Ar-Go'-N / Me-Go'-N), as well as commonly used sagittal and vertical indices were measured. Pearson correlation analysis was used to show the representativeness of different segmentation methods on the mandibular growth direction., Results: As the gonial angle decreased with age, all the segmentation-based metrics decreased. The plane-based segmentation metrics, including Ar-Go'-VFH / Me-Go'-FH, Ar-Go'-VSN / Me-Go'-SN, were superior to the point-based segmentation metrics (Ar-Go'-S / Me-Go'-S, and Ar-Go'-N / Me-Go '-N) in evaluating vertical and sagittal development of the mandible. The sagittal indicators displayed alteration of ramus and condyle, while these vertical indicators responded to the alteration of the mandibular corpus and gonial angle., Conclusions: The gonial angle should be clinically segmented with planes (including SN plane and FH plane) rather than points (including Go'-S and Go'-N) to assess mandibular development. The FH plane-based segmentation method facilitated chair-side diagnosis of the mandibular growth direction., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) splitting of water into H 2 and O 2 by direct use of sunlight is an ideal strategy for the production of clean and renewable energy, which fundamentally relies on the exploration of advanced photoanodes with high performance. In the present work, we report that single-crystal integrated photoanodes, that is, 4 H -SiC nanohole arrays (active materials) and SiC wafer substrate (current collector), are established into a totally single-crystal configuration without interfaces, which was based on a two-step electrochemical etching process. The as-fabricated SiC photoanode showed a rather low onset potential of -0.016 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) and a high photocurrent density of 3.20 mA/cm 2 vs RHE 1.23 V, which were both superior to those of all reported SiC ones. Furthermore, such a rationally designed photoanode exhibited a fast photoresponse, wide photoresponse wavelength range, and long-term stability, representing its overall excellent PEC performance.